The Kingdom of Heaven looks like a Bad Farmer

Sermon: Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23

Proper 10, July 16, 2017

Preached by Fr Joshua at St David's Episcopal Church, Elkhart, IN

Gardening!

I really love gardening . . .  at least the first part. The harvesting was always been harder. In fact, I remember one year when we planted two long rows of beans and waited and waited and waited and waited. Nothing came up. My father was extremely frustrated. Nevertheless, we had a few extra packets of seed so we went out and planted two more long rows of beans. Sure enough, these rows began to sprout the little green leaves could be seen from our back porch.

Shortly after the breaking of the soil from these new sprouts, we noticed a lot more green. But this green was in the wrong place. All the sudden -  out of nowhere and extremely late, the two rows we had planted in the first place decided to produce. Through the hot months July and August we spent nearly every day in the field . . .  picking beans . . .  picking beans from the suns rising to sundown. We even invited my friends from the neighborhood to come and help. We offered them pizza in exchange, so we didn’t have to eat all the beans in one sitting. We spent weeks stringing, breaking,  and canning. We had enough beans to last us through the year or more. And it was such a bumper crop there was still tubs of leftovers. I recall standing with my sister at the door of our church after the Sunday evening service with bags and buckets of beans offering them to members of our congregation as they left to go home -  begging them to take some of this harvest.

Whenever I read today's Gospel parable I can't help but remember that story,  and I remember the aching knees and pain in the back. But I can also remember the bumper crop we harvested that year. That year which began with uncertainty. What we thought would produce nothing either by famine, or bad soil, or just bad seed, had yielded forth 30, 60, even a hundred fold. That year I learned the important lesson of trusting things to God's hands and the joy of giving out of our abundance. My family still refers to that as the YEAR OF THE BEAN!

But our garden had much more planning involved than the farmer in the parable we here today. The sower who goes out to sow some seed has sown by broadcasting. Now, most of the time broadcasting is done by walking across your field and kind of throwing the seed where you would like it to grow,  but the actions of the sower in Jesus parable could actually be considered bad farming practice. You’re not going to find this recommended in any Farmer's Almanac. He just takes a handful of seed pulls it out of the bag and tosses to the left, to the right, forward, behind, everywhere, haphazardly. He must be really trusting in God because he's just letting it fly.

Now here’s a little bit of exegetical free advice. Matthew offers us an interpretation of this parable. I’ll say that again, it’s Matthew’s interpretation. If ever you are doing your own private devotions or group Bible study, and you come upon a parable - you read through the parable and then discover what looks to be an interpretation STOP! Stop reading, go back to the parable, and focus on that. Pray for God to reveal its meaning to you. Now I say that because the lesson you are meant to learn from the parable may change over time. A different portion speaks to you, a new revelation is made now because you find yourself under different circumstances in your life.  As the preacher today, all I can ever do, is offer you what has been revealed to me through my study of the scripture, my life experience, and within my prayer for this community. So we are going to ignore the prescribed interpretation for now, and attempt to keep ourselves from being boxed in by limiting our mind and spirit to understanding in new ways. Deal?

So this is what I want you to do with me, let’s place ourselves in the role of the sower. For a moment, this morning, let’s become what appears to be a bad farmer. We have the opportunity to take our seed and broadcast it with abandon. Throw it every-which-way to love everyone, preach truth to the powers and proclaim the Gospel; to live a life of peace and love and understanding and acceptance to everyone everywhere. The Harvest is not our doing, planting the seed is. Now some of it’s not going to produce at all. And some of it's not going to produce in the way or in the time which we plan it or hope for, but we have to trust God for the harvest, even if we never see its fruit.

Two weeks ago I was going to the office and getting books in order in and finding different things.I came across the register of services for this Parish going all the way back to 1964. In fact, the first half of the first page is services that were all conducted in Mary Feeser School. This is my nerdy moment. Not only am I liturgics nerd but I'm also a bit of a history buff. So I got a little too excited about the opportunity to sit down and read through the Register of Services from 1964 till today. I've only up read through 1966, but it has been an extraordinary journey so far. I've witnessed the ebb and flow of the daily life of this parish as it has been recorded in black and white on the pages of those registers. I have found random Tuesday Morning Eucharistic celebrations with only two people. I can see when Sunday services are held, how many people are in attendance, how many people are receiving communion. I see every wedding,  every baptism, funerals, and services of anointed healing.  Father Smith recorded some of the smallest details.

This congregation was formed out of a mission of St John the Evangelist in Elkhart. Some seeds were broadcast to the Simonton Lake area and a family was formed in the North. How are you continuing to broadcast that seed? We are called to go out and continue the planting. My prayer is that we will appear to the rest of the world like bad farmers, that we will love with abandon. That we will preach peace and live the gospel among the thorns, on rocky soil, in the Sun, on the path to be trodden, and every once in awhile our seeds fall in some really good, dark, rich soil. Some of you may be here today as a result of someone else broadcasting seeds in your direction.

Think with me, how are we doing this? You don't have to know right now but I want that

question to burrow in the back of your mind, to be a seed planted, to take root. Something to be thinking about. Please feel free to share it with me or other members of this community. We do not need to think about the harvest, God will do that. But what part of the field do you feel being led to walk through? What kind of seeds are you throwing out? What are we broadcasting and where does it go?

Throughout the last 50 + years there have been seasons of drought and seasons of a bumper crop. I haven't been here long enough to know where we are right now. But I pray that together we'll take the example given us in today's parable. Let's appear to the rest of the world to be some really bad farmers, and see what God can do with us.

AMEN.

How does your yoke fit?

Sermon: Matthew 11:25-30

Proper 9, July 9, 2017

Preached by Fr Joshua Nelson at St David's Episcopal Church, Elkhart, Indiana

The last few weeks, our readings have been focused on the cost of discipleship. We have been called to take up our cross, to rejoice in persecution and to expect death in order that we might obtain life. But today, Jesus offers us some reprieve. Now, this is not the kind of rest one might get from a vacation, no this is reprieve that comes within the vein of continued work. So what exactly is Jesus calling us to? What is being offered?

The symbol of the “yoke” is not an unfamiliar one to the audience of Jesus’ day. Israel at that time, and part’s even now are extremely agricultural. Everyone would have known a yoke for its literal use, but also for its symbolism by the prophets like Jeremiah and Isaiah, and the Jewish Wisdom literature such as Job and Ecclesiasticus.

The teachers of the day often used the symbol of the yoke as an analogy for the Law of Moses. This is all well and good as long as the focus is on the yokes purpose. To keep the bearer of the yoke in the path. The yoke keeps the oxen or the horse from veering left or right when pulling the plow. The yoke aids in making clean furrows and keeping the pathway straight. Keep that image in mind, we will be returning to it later.

Have any of you ever steered a plow blade? Or do remember your first time running a rototiller? I do. It wasn’t fun. It was a mess. We live near enough Amish Country, and I grew up in Amish Country. You can tell when the horse was not harnessed properly, or the Plowman is really a plowboy, his first time at the reigns. You can tell when the yoke is ill fitting. The field looks awful. The furrows are all over the place, different angles, different depths.

Some choose to take on the wrong yoke, one that does not fit properly. There are others in the world who find cause to force others to wear the wrong yoke. This is a yoke of Oppression. This is a yoke of Injustice. This is a yoke used to keep others down. Furrows drawn by this yolk are not smooth or straight, they are rough and forced. They do not allow seeds to take root. They do not produce good fruit. This is Jesus condemnation of some of the Pharisees who place strict rules and extra practice upon people.

Sometimes we do this to ourselves, moving beyond the ways of love and grace and peace and justice and focusing on the praxis and pieces. We think that we must light just the right candles. Or we must say just the right prayers. We fall into the temptation of thinking that when we get the Liturgy just right then God will bless us. Trust me, this is coming from a self-confessed liturgy nerd, but it is none the less dangerous for me. This kind of thinking is short-sided. The form and function of the liturgy were developed by the ancient church as a means to lift us in body, mind, and spirit to a different plane, into a heavenly realm. Our practice of worship in community is meant by God to edify the hearts of man, so too with the teachings of God in the Law. Saying certain prayers and burning the incense and lighting a candle may do that for you, I know it often does for me. It only becomes dangerous when it usurps our community and relationship through the love of God.

Sometimes we put on the yoke of self-blame, of not being able to forgive ourselves, even when we have been assured of God’s forgiveness. How often do we doubt our own faith, our own deeds, our own purpose? This does only to hinder our growth and ruin our fruit. We place limitations on ourselves which keep us from receiving the blessing God has for us and in turn, holds us back from fully living into our purpose --- to be a breathing manifestation of the Body of Christ in the world and to be a blessing to others.

So what is Jesus offering?

“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden . . . ”

Come to me, you who are oppressed; you who are beaten down; you who struggle with the ways of man. Come to me, you who are wearied; you who are weighed down with self-doubt and unforgiveness; you who struggle under the weight of an ill-fitting yoke.

“I will give you rest . . . ”

I will assure you of forgiveness. I will show you the love I have formed around you. I will open the world to you in the body of Christ. I will lift you up in blessing so that you may go out and bless the world.

Now to that yoke, the one Jesus offers.

“Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

The yoke that Jesus offers is one he knows well. By becoming a man himself, our God took on everything that we do. He knew hunger, frustration, homelessness, --- loneliness, rejection, and betrayal, ---- temptation, doubt, and even death. He knows the yoke. He knows every grain of the wood, every stitch of the leather, every twist of the rope. He knows the weight and breadth and type of yoke we are capable of bearing. The yoke that he offers us is made for us. It fits properly, it is light, it holds easy on our shoulders. If we allow him, he will become the Plowman.   Gentle and Lowly in Heart. He will adjust the reins in love. He teaches us, gently holding direction.

But what does it take for the beast to truly follow the Plowman --- to become one with him at the ropes? it takes time. It takes practice. It takes familiarity. We must spend time with Jesus. We must spend time in his word. We must spend time in the community of the body of Christ. This is how we know his voice. This is how we know his touch. This is how our hearts become one with his beating in tandem.

Only then do we find rest in the work. This is something that Worship in a community does for us. We find comfort in the familiar. In praying and singing, in worshipping in spirit and in truth with a law that is written on our heart. When we take on this yoke we give control over to God.

By giving up control and turning our lives over to love we come under that release and find comfort. We now move with God. We now follow his lead --- follow his path. The furrows become straight the Earth becomes rich. The seeds take root and the fruits produce abundance.  From those fruits, we are made a blessing to the world.

Under the Yoke of Christ we give up control, we find comfort, we follow the path, and we find rest in this confidence gained through our obedient service to God and His Church.  

AMEN

Come and See

Sermon at St Luke's Episcopal Church, Cleveland Tennessee
2 Epiphany 2017
John 1:29-42

How many of you have ever enjoyed going for a walk,or heading out on a hike? It’s something that I really like to do! It’s a great way to clear your head, and get a little exercise,and it is where I often find the most clarity, when I’m seeking answers or needing to de-stress. It is where I often find God in a deeper way.

As a student at Lee I would get up in the middle of the night when I couldn’t sleep and walk all over campus. (It was a lot smaller back then). Or when I was really stressed out I would drive out to the Olympic Park and hike the trails or dip my feet in the waters of the Ocoee.

Last summer there were many changes happening in my life. I had recently made pilgrimage to the Holy Land. I was getting a new Bishop (and all that entails). I was coming up on my final year of Seminary, looking toward ordination, graduation, and an eventual call. There was a lot of things happening and a lot to take in. The future wasn't exactly clear, and that's difficult for someone who likes to plan ahead. So this summer I had to begin asking myself a variation on the question Jesus poses to the apostles in today’s Gospel, “What am I looking for?” and “Where do I go from here?”

To help with the stress and anxiety, I made retreat at one of my favorite places, St Gregory’s Abbey in Three Rivers, Michigan. The monastery is in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by woods and tree farms. There is absolutely no cell coverage, and nothing ever changes. For an introvert like me, it is beautiful. It is a great place to be alone and think.

One day I decided to take a hike. There are many meandering trails all over the property. Most of them I know very well from my previous visits, but on this day I had the need to get lost. I needed to find new places and to not know where I was going.

Now I was a Boy Scout, so I went prepared. I put on some good shoes, grabbed plenty of water, and I knew I could eat my bodyweight in the plethora of wild black raspberries If I were to get hungry on the way.

I made my way down the familiar path from the monks cemetery to the lake.

It was very Robert Frostian. Two roads diverged in a yellow wood . . . To the East, the way to the hermitage that I knew so well, and to the West, a wood I’d left unexplored. This day I took the one less traveled.

For nearly three hours I explored every bend and turn, every tree and bush, and I found every thorn on this path. Sometimes needing to backtrack from a dead end, or avoiding walking across a farmer's field of soybeans. I did eat nearly my weight in black raspberries, and a few times, I actually got a little scared---a little worried. Because in the deepness of the wood it is difficult to find the sun and I did not know if I was heading toward home or further away. I just had to trust and hope by faith that I would eventually make it back. No trail of breadcrumbs here, I simply had to assess my surroundings and keep pressing forward.

Eventually I emerged from the wood. I found myself at the highway known as Abbey Road. I was roughly a mile south from where I was staying. And like any good Anglican I made it back just in time for tea.

In that walk and the days since I have learned much about my unwarranted need to have all the answers, and my desire to know exactly where I am going, and what I am looking for.

Andrew and the other apostle, had also been looking for answers. They were disciples of John the Baptist, and possibly of one or more other teachers before John. This was not uncommon in the ancient world. Being a disciple was like having Google at our fingertips today. You followed your teacher everywhere so you would always have the answers right at hand.

So when John points out that Jesus is the Lamb of God, this is THE ONE he has been talking about this whole time they’ve been with him. They decide to follow Jesus---literally--- just following him wherever he goes. No letter of introduction from your former teacher

No interview process, just the creepy, stalker-like, following. . .  everywhere.

Eventually Jesus turns around and says “What are you looking for?” The apostles don’t answer the question . . . instead, they ask “where are you staying?”Now I don’t about you,

but that is the last bit of information I want to be giving out to two strange guys who have just started following me around all day. So Jesus response could be seen as an answer to the query posed as to his residence that evening, but imagine with me for a moment, that he is answering the broader question which he posed. What are you looking for? “Come and See!” he says.

This is a tactic that most teachers know well, pose another question, or give a redirection to help the student find, on their own, what they are looking for. Jesus is saying, let me show you what you are looking for. He does this by taking them on the journey. It is in that journey that we find what we are looking for.

When preparing for today’s sermon I noticed the question Jesus poses to the apostles. This seems to run in the vain of new year's goals or resolutions. So with that in mind I decided to hit Facebook and do a little “Sermon Crowdsourcing” I used a public forum and asked “As a Christian, or just in life this next year, what are you looking for?” and I would pose the same question to you today, “What are you looking for?” I got a number of responses and one of my favorite being a search for “a good heavenly single malt scotch” but that was an outlier. The rest of the answers seemed to have a theme of commonality.

There were things like,

“I am looking for help me to cultivate kindness”

“I am looking for ways to add value to others lives”

“I am seeking understanding of God’s calling on my life”

“I am looking for ways to be challenged in faith and action”

“I am looking for ways to become a better servant”

“I am looking for the means of patience to listen to the stories of other” and for a “practical hope, hope and faith and love put into action.”

Eventually the Apostles came around to asking similar questions “where is the greatest need?”, “how might I share the good news?” And probably the scariest question of all “What does it take and does it mean to be a disciple of Jesus” The lessons learned, the actions practiced, and the opportunities met, all came while on the journey. By following Jesus wherever he went and imitating his life. And the continuing journey of bearing witness to Jesus after his resurrection.

We find ourselves on this journey. As we go into the new year it is important for us to recognize in ourselves and in others that everyone is on their own journey.

We may not always know exactly what direction we are headed, where the next turn will take us, or who we will meet along the way. We may have to backtrack. We may find the thorns. And at times we feel lost, but that’s okay. The important point is to COME AND SEE! Take a moment, take a deep breath. Assess the surroundings, and move forward. Look for the opportunities and take them. Do not be afraid of the unknown path. God knows where you are

I recently found this quote by Thomas Merton which I have since printed off and put by my desk at school. I look at it every day and take its words to heart and live out what it says. It goes like this . . .

“You do not need to know precisely what is happening, or exactly where it is all going. What you need is to recognize the possibilities and challenges offered by the present moment, and to embrace them with courage, faith and hope.”

So when you ask that question, sometimes all you can do is ut one foot in front of the other, trust God, because he stands in front of us beckoning, “Come and See.”

AMEN